12 OCTOBER 1901, Page 23

Don or Devil? By William Westall. (C. Arthur Pearson. Gs.)

—In Don or Devil ? an Englishman who has been crossed in love takes ship for Colombia and throws in his lot with the cause of liberty in South America. The time is the day of Bolivar, and the pictures of treachery and cruelty on both sides of the struggle 1 eave little to choose between Spaniard and Venezu- elan. The novel is not to be reckoned amongst Mr. Westall's best efforts, but the description, towards the end, of the Manoa Mountain standing on natural pillars with a river flowing under it is excellent, and helps the imagination to realise that " Venezuela " means "Little Venice."